Iced Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I thought I would post another pumpkin recipe since this is the time of year when I go a little crazy for anything pumpkin.

This recipe comes from Nestle. They make really good kinds of chocolate chips in my opinion. I especially love their mini chocolate chips because they are great for muffins (like these Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins) and don't sink to the bottom like the regular sized ones.

Iced Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies from: Nestle

2 1/4  cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar (I use 1/2 cup regular sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar)
1 can pumpkin (15 ounces)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla
12 ounce package of chocolate chips

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or grease them. Mix the flour through the salt together. In a separate bowl-use a mixer to combine the butter and sugar. Add in the pumpkin, eggs and vanilla. Mix in the dry ingredients well and then the chocolate chips. Use a tablespoon of dough for each cookie. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool completely and frost with glaze. The recipe says this makes about 5 1/2 dozen. I get about 4 dozen.

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Pizza

My youngest son loves this!

Thank goodness it is easy to make. I have to confess that the first time I made this, I somehow dropped the pan of hot pizza on the floor and had to remake almost the whole recipe. Major fail, but I am glad I had enough ingredients to make another batch. I am sure anyone that knows me at all would not be surprised as I am a major klutz. Now I need to learn how to drizzle melted chocolate artistically!

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Pizza from Taste of Home- Fancheon Resler

1 tube refrigerated cookie dough or 2 cups of my recipe for sugar cookies

8 ounces of cream cheese, softened

2 eggs

½ cup sugar

1 cup peanut butter chips

1 cup chopped, unsalted peanuts

1 cup milk chocolate chips

1 teaspoon of shortening

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Press the cookie dough onto an ungreased 14 inch pizza pan or a jelly roll pan works. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until golden. Beat the cream cheese and then add the eggs and sugar. Spread over the crust. Sprinkle with the peanuts and peanut chips. Bake another 15-18 minutes until the center is set. Cool 15 minutes. Melt the chocolate chips and the shortening together in the microwave. Drizzle over the pizza. I sometimes buy the chocolate and peanut butter bag of chips and either separate them by flavor or sprinkle half on the pizza and use half for the drizzle. Either way, you get the peanut/chocolate flavor and half opened bags of any flavor of chips are dangerous for me to have sitting around the house. Remember to refrigerate your leftovers.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins

I can't believe it has been so long since I have made this recipe. I love these things. This is another recipe I got from my sister G. I know I have had the recipe for around 10 years, maybe longer. Every time I think of baking with zucchini, I think of making these before I think of anything else such as zucchini bread. I have no idea where this recipe originally came from.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 cup shredded zucchini
1/2 to 3/4 cup mini or regular chocolate chips

Mix the flour through the cinnamon together in a bowl. In another bowl, mix the sugar, egg, oil, milk and lemon juice. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and fold in the zucchini and chocolate chips. Bake in very well greased or lined muffin cups.

Note: This make one dozen muffins and they freeze very well in a freezer ziplock. The recipe also calls for 1/4 cup chopped walnut but I have never tried it with the nuts. Mini chocolate chips work well here, but I took a tip I heard somewhere ( some blog I can't remember) and mixed a tablespoon of the flour from the recipe with the regular sized chocolate chips before adding to the dough. It did seem to help keep them from all sinking to the bottom, like they had in the past. I also sprinkled a few chips on top of each muffin. Makes them look even better to me, plus more chocolate is always good!

Linking up to Sweets for a Saturday and Breakfast Ideas Monday

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Biscotti

This was so good.

Biscotti can be a little time consuming, but I always think it is worth it when I make it. This recipe comes from Annie's Eats. It was devoured by my biscotti loving husband and my peanut butter crazy sons.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Biscotti From: Annie's Eats

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

6 tablespoons of butter, softened

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla

3 large eggs

1 cup of mini chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together. In an separate bowl mix the butter, peanut butter and sugar together. Add the vanilla and then the eggs, one at a time. Slowly add the flour mixture. Stir in the mini chips. Shape the dough into 2 logs about 11x3 each. Keep about 3 inches apart. They will spread. Bake for 30 minutes. Take the logs out and let them cool for about 10 minutes (or 10 seconds if you are me).Slice diagonally about 1/2 an inch thick. Lay on there sides and bake for 20 to 25 minutes more. Turn them over once during this baking time for even browning.  Cool or eat them straight from the oven, so you can burn your tongue like my husband does every time I make cookies. Ha!

Linking up to: Sweets for a Saturday

Baker's One Bowl Brownies

These are my new favorite brownies. I have been making cocoa brownies for years and love them. With these, I don't even need the frosting I usually put on. These are thick, moist and a little chewy.


Baker's One Bowl Brownies From: Kraft

4 squares of unsweetened chocolate (4 ounces)
3/4 cup of butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 cup of flour
1 cup of chocolate chips or chopped nuts (or both!)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13x9 pan with foil and grease the foil with shortening or cooking spray. In a glass bowl, melt the chocolate and butter together about 2 minutes in the microwave or over a double boiler. Mix until smooth. Add the sugar and then the eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour and the chocolate chips or nuts if using. Bake 30 to 35 minutes until a few crumbs come out on a toothpick. Cool and cut.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

My oldest sister gave me this recipe many years ago and I love it. These are moist and a good treat any time of the day. I guess you could eat them for breakfast because pumpkin is good for you, right?!? And who couldn't use a little chocolate?

Pumpkin Chip Muffins

4 eggs
2 cups of sugar
16 ounce can of pumpkin
1 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of salt
12 ounces mini or regular chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease or line with liners, 24 regular muffin cups. Beat the eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oil together.  In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients ( the flour through the salt). Add to the wet mixture and then add the chips. Place in the muffin cups and bake for 16-20 minutes.

Linking up to:
Sweets for a Saturday
Breakfast Ideas Monday

Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Cake

I made this for a co-worker's birthday. She loves peanut butter cups. I found the idea for this on flickr. I followed the recipe for the frosting, but used a different cake recipe. Her picture is great.

Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Cake adapted from flint knit at flickr

Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake from : Hershey's of course!

2 cup sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil ( I use canola)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup of boiling water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour 2 9 inch round pans.

Mix the sugar through the salt together. Add in the milk through the vanilla and beat with a mixer for 2 minutes. Stir in the boiling water and then pour into the pan. This batter is very thin. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes and then on wire racks.

Frosting

1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup of butter, softened
 3 tsp vanilla
4 cups of powdered sugar

Beat the butter and peanut butter together until smooth. Add the vanilla and then slowly add the powdered sugar.

I doubled the original recipe for the peanut butter frosting. She had a chocolate ganache in the middle of the layers. I just filled and frosted it with the peanut butter frosting. Frost and decorate with cut up peanut butter cups. Freeze them first or they will become a huge mess!

Guiness Chocolate Cake

I don't like Guiness, or beer for that matter, but I love this cake!

 The fluffy frosting above.

I found this recipe on the Cookie Madness blog and made it for my birthday a year and a half ago. I made it a while back for the head of my department for his birthday. It was well received at the office and at home.

Chocolate Guinness Layer Cake  from:  Cookie Madness (adapted from Epicurious)

1 cup of butter

1 cup of Guinness Stout

3/4 cup Hershey's Dark Cocoa

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs 

2/3 cup sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2  8 inch cake pans. 

Melt the butter over medium heat. Add the stout and cook until it starts to simmer. Turn the heat to low and add the cocoa. Whisk ingredient together and remove from heat. Whisk the flour through salt together in a bowl. In another bowl beat the eggs for 5 minutes until thick. Add the sour cream, then the stout mixture. Add the flour mixture and stir until well combined. Bake the cakes for 28-32 minutes.

Even though the cake was great, the best part was this frosting: 

Malted Chocolate Frosting from: Cookie Madness (adapted from Dorie Greenspan)

6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate ( I used semisweet)

1/3 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup of malted milk powder ( I used Carnation)

1 tablespoon of cocoa

1/4 cup boiling water

1 cup of butter, softened

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon of vanilla

2 1/4 cups powdered sugar

Melt the chocolate and half of the brown sugar in a double boiler or a glass bowl over simmering water (or carefully in the microwave)

Mix the rest of the brown sugar with the malted milk, cocoa and boiling water until smooth.

Beat the butter, then add in the melted chocolate, the malted milk and the vanilla. Slowly add in the powdered sugar until smooth. Chill the frosting for at least 60 minutes, then beat with a mixer until light and fluffy. What a great cake! I think I need to make it again soon.